"The virus spreads in a geometric progression," Benjamin Netanyahu declared last week, going on to explain to the lay public what that means: "One person infects two people. Each of them infects two more. The four infect eight, the eight infect 16, the 16 infect 32, the 32 infect 64, the 64 infect 128 - and so on and so forth."

According to the prime minister's logic, 100 percent of the Israeli population will become carriers of the coronavirus within a short time. On the other hand, according to that same logic, 100 percent of the population will also come into contact with each other within a short time. Is this really the situation?

"We do not move about in space like particles," says Dan Yamin, of Tel Aviv University's industrial engineering department. "Try to remember what you did yesterday. Even without all the social distancing measures, you probably would have met the same people you met today. We move across networks of social contact. So, from a certain stage, it will be difficult to infect even those who bear a potential for becoming infected, because the carriers don't wander around looking for new people to infect."

Forecasts of doom for the American economy are quickly turning from gray to pitch black.

As Congress haggles over a multitrillion-dollar coronavirus rescue package, analysts are warning the U.S. could be facing a prolonged depression rather than the kind of short recession and swift bounce back that President Donald Trump and his top aides expect. And they're raising questions about whether current government efforts to cushion the economy from the damage will be anywhere near enough.

Across Wall Street and the economic world, forecasters are quickly ramping up their predictions of massive job losses and declines in economic activity by as much as an annualized 50 percent in the second quarter of the year. They're offering estimates unseen since the Great Depression that began in 1929 and continued for a brutal decade, reshaping governments and economies across the globe.

Morgan Stanley economists on Monday said they now expect a 30.1 percent annualized decline in gross domestic product in the second quarter, the worst quarterly performance in 74 years. The firm's estimates assume the virus peaks in April and May before growth starts to recover. But if the peak comes later and economic disruption continues in the second half of the year, they wrote, U.S. growth for even the entire year will be down to levels last seen in the early 1930s.

One post has been going viral on social media, that asks: "Dear World, how's the lockdown?' Signed: Gaza." The suggestion is that people in Italy, Spain, France, or the U.S., now know how Palestinians in Gaza live. The post has even been shared by Palestinians from Gaza itself, as well as by Arabs in various parts of the world. Writing about the newly-imposed restrictions on travel and large gatherings in Europe, as well as the horrific reality of having to do a triage of patients in overwhelmed hospitals in Italy, Ahmed Abbas asked: "How can I not think of Gaza?"

Speaking for myself, as someone who does think a lot about Gaza, I can say this much: I live just outside of Seattle, that is, the U.S. epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic, and I fit in the high risk category, since I have asthma, as well as high blood pressure-the latter being now suspected as an aggravating circumstance, because a disproportionate number of fatalities apparently also had high blood pressure. I am self-quarantining, and am out of my staples: brown rice, lentils, and chickpeas, essential to my vegan diet. Nevertheless, while I understand the impulse to remind the world that Gaza has been under lockdown for thirteen years, I have found the meme comparing my current circumstances with the 13-year siege on Gaza unnerving, and am compelled to point out some significant differences, which Abbas indeed alludes to.

I still have electricity. That means I am not reading by candle light, my internet is on 24 hours a day, my fridge is running, as are all my electric appliances, from dishwasher to microwave. It also means my freezer is full, so while I may run out of fresh greens, I do have frozen spinach. I expect to have electricity throughout this pandemic.

"What is a society that has no value other than survival?" Giorgio Agamben asks, in this piece published today in Italian on the blog Quodlibet. The essay was republished on Medium, and in an authorized translation by Adam Kotsko , who described it as the important European philosopher's "indirect response to the controversy surrounding his article about the response to coronavirus in Italy." It was also included in the European Journal of Psychoanlysis, in a round-up of thoughts on "Coronavirus and Philosophers," and from there to Facebook, where it came to my attention:

What do the new restrictions involve?

In brief: an Italian-style lockdown to force people to stay at home beyond a small range of very limited circumstances. Under the terms explained by Boris Johnson in his TV address, people will be allowed to leave home only for the following reasons:

• shopping for necessities, as infrequently as possible;
• one form of exercise a day, such as running or cycling, alone or with household members;
• for medical or care needs, for example to help a vulnerable person;
• travelling to and from work, but only if you cannot work from home.

Meeting friends, shopping for anything beyond essentials, and gathering in crowds are now banned.

Two teenage girls allegedly assaulted a group of Chinese people in a suspected coronavirus-linked incident.

The pair, aged 14 and 15, are reported to have shouted abuse at the four people, who were wearing medical face masks, before confronting them.

The alleged incident, which occurred on March 17 in Vincent's Walk, Southampton, is believed to have been racially aggravated and linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Three teenagers were arrested after an elderly couple were allegedly coughed at in the street.

The couple were approached by three people in Hitchin, one of whom is said to have coughed in their faces.

A passer-by intervened and there was "an altercation" which left a woman in her 70s with a black eye, police said.

The great H.L. Mencken, a classical liberal when such creatures still existed, once wrote, "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary." I find myself repeating this quote more and more these days.

America, and the rest of the world, is in the throes of a panic that has never been seen before, outside the fanciful scripts of Hollywood. A new "super" virus, the Coronavirus, is being hyped nonstop by our state-controlled media as the new bubonic plague. The fear porn emanating from our television sets is relentless.

Attempting to urge calm, and discuss this subject rationally is very difficult. Hysterical shoppers have wiped the shelves clean in many stores. Toilet paper, for whatever reason, is being hoarded by nearly everyone. I have done what I can, with my own limited platform. I've had guests like the veteran medical fraud expert Jon Rappoport, and Dr. Steven Hotze, on my radio show "I Protest." Most listeners, and most of my contacts on social media, seem to agree that this thing is being wildly over hyped. Some agree with my growing suspicion that it is, in fact, a hoax.

A woman in the United States says she was billed $34,927.43 after being tested and treated for the coronavirus, Time magazine reports.

When Danni Askini first came down with the symptoms of the virus — shortness of breath, a fever, a cough and migraines — she was told by a doctor to go to the emergency room. There, she was told she had pneumonia and could go home. She visited the emergency room two more times as her symptoms persisted and worsened before she was finally tested for the coronavirus. Three days later her results showed she had COVID-19.

The tests and her treatment for the viral illness all took place while Askini was uninsured and before President Trumpsigned congressional measures ensuring free diagnostic testing. After, she got a bill totaling $34,927.43.

Lawyers for Julian Assange are to make a bail application for the WikiLeaks co-founder, arguing that he is in imminent danger of contracting the deadly novel coronavirus at the center of a global pandemic while in prison.

The Australian is currently being held in the notorious maximum-security Belmarsh prison in London on a US extradition warrant for publishing classified information about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

WikiLeaks released a statement on Monday, saying the 48-year-old's legal team would now be pushing for bail at a hearing at Westminster Magistrates court in London on Wednesday.

Julian Assange falls into a category of persons who should be released to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.